The Magic of Animosity
by MasterBaitnSwitch
Summary: I've stopped using , and am instead using fimfiction. This story is currently being updated on that site  as of 3-25-12 .  Check it out on my site here - fimfiction dot net/user/DeltaMelon
1. It's Been a While

Twilight Sparkle suddenly woke from her nap, after the train hit a small bump on the tracks. Startled for only a moment, she resumed her composure and took a glance out the window at the barren desert scenery. She then looked over to her bag, half open and its contents peeking out from within. The small, glossy black box was the only thing inside; Twilight was to bring it to Sheriff Silverstar in Appleloosa, which had been a request made directly from Princess Celestia. Though Twilight had accepted the mission immediately, she still wondered exactly what was inside of this mysterious box—she had never been told not to open it, but the seal featured a large lock on the front, and Celestia had never given Twilight a key.

"Perhaps I should've asked just _what_ it is I'm delivering…though I didn't want to be nosy…" Twilight said to herself.

The train hit another bump, and Twilight and her bag jumped a few inches into the air. The box slipped out of the bag and fell onto the floor.

"Oh no!" Twilight exclaimed as she picked the box up with her magic. Closely examining each side of the pristine onyx box, she found that there were no scratches on it, and she placed it back into the bag and closed it tightly.

Unfortunately for Twilight, each of her friends was preoccupied with something else they had previously planned for today, and none of them were able to come along with Twilight for the trip. It was lonely for her, being the only one in the passenger car, but it certainly wasn't going to be the end of the world just because she'd have to spend one day without any of her friends' companionship.

Twilight heard the train's whistle blow, and looking back out the window she could see Appleloosa closing in on the horizon. She picked up her bag and secured it around her waist as she got ready to get off the train at the station. As the train began to slow and Appleloosa became closer in the distance, Twilight stood in front of the door of the car; when the train lined up with the station and came to a stop, Twilight saw Braeburn waiting for her on the platform, wearing a wide grin.

"Why howdy there, Twi! It's a pleasure t' see ya here again in A~APPLELOOSA!" Braeburn exclaimed while rearing back and kicking his front hooves.

"Hello, Braeburn!" Twilight said gleefully. "How's the apple orchard coming along?"

"Thanks t' the treaty between the set'ler-ponies and the buffalo, we're bringing in more apple trees and expandin' our produce! Outta of the way of the buffalo's track, of course."

"That's good to hear!" said Twilight, "Now where's the Sheriff? I'm sure you're here because of this?" She flipped open her bag to show Braeburn the small black box.

"Yessiree! Sheriff Silverstar asked me t' come here t' the station an' meet up with ya when you arrived," said Braeburn.

Out of curiosity, Twilight asked Braeburn, "Do you happen to know what is in here? The box, that is." She asked this in a softer tone, as if she was afraid of being caught asking.

"Not a clue," Braeburn confessed. "Heck, I only found out an hour ago that you're bringing some little box, an' that's all the Sheriff had told me. So you don't know what's in here, either?"

Twilight shook her head. "Unfortunately, no; I'm kind of surprised that neither of us was told of what this box contains, since we're the ones who are transporting it."

"You an' me both," Braeburn said. "C'mon, times a wastin'; let's get over to Sheriff Silverstar, he mus' know what this here little box contains!"

Braeburn leading the way, the two ponies walked to the Sheriff's office. Twilight took in all there was to see in the settler-ponies' town. It looked as good as it did during her first trip to Appleloosa—before the enormous fight between the ponies and the buffalo, that it. While looking around, the sound of fireworks suddenly caught her ear.

"Do you hear that, Braeburn? Is there some kind of party going on right now?" Twilight asked.

Braeburn stopped and listened for the sound Twilight had heard. The whistling and popping of fireworks suddenly beginning again, and he turned to Twilight and said, "Oh, yeah, I forgot—there's some new unicorn that's passin' through town, an' right now she's showin' off somma her magic tricks." Braeburn scowled a little. "Kinda showin' off, if you ask me, but it's keepin' the town entertained for a while, I guess."

Twilight had heard of something similar before. "What does this unicorn look like?"

Braeburn looked to Twilight confused. "Huh? Uh, I guess she's kinda blueish with a light silver mane," Braeburn said, thinking back to the few minutes he spent watching the unicorn's performance.

"Oh boy," Twilight said, sinking her head down.

"Som'thin the matter, Twi?" Braeburn asked.

"I was kind of hoping she'd changed her ways since last time. I guess she's still the same bragging, over-the-top Trixie," Twilight said aloud, but more to herself than anyone else.

"Trixie!" Braeburn exclaimed, "That's what she called herself! The 'Great and Powerful Trixie', actually. Like ah said, kinda tootin' her own horn, if you ask me. Did you wanna go see her?"

"Uh, no, let's just keep on to the Sheriff's; I'd prefer to stay as far away from that unicorn as possible," Twilight said flatly.

The two ponies continued on their original path, Twilight ignoring the obnoxious noises coming from the distant side of town.

Eventually, Braeburn and Twilight arrived at the office of Sheriff Silverstar. Walking inside, Braeburn called out to the Sheriff, "Hello, Sheriff! Come on down, Twilight Sparkle's here with the package y'wanted! Sheriff?"

Instead of Silverstar, a mare with a cream-colored coat and deep-red, braided hair came walking down the steps to greet the two. "Oh, hey there Braeburn…and who're you?"

"Paula, this is Twilight Sparkle; she's a good friend'a Cousin Applejack's and is bringin' some lil' box-thingy to the Sheriff," Braeburn said. Turning to Twilight, Braeburn introduced her to the other mare, "Twi, this here is my sister PaulaRed. She's working under the Sheriff right now as a deputy."

"Hello!" Twilight said happily. She noticed the apple-themed cutie mark on PaulaRed's flank.

"Hi!" Paula said. "Glad to see y'all made it here so quick, but ah'm 'fraid the Sheriff's out righ' now," she spoke with a thick southern drawl.

"Oh," Twilight said disappointingly. "Well, Sheriff Silverstar told you about this box then, right?"

"Of course he did," Paula replied, "he mentioned that he prob'ly wouldn't be around by the time you arrived, Twilight, but he'll be back within a couple'a hours."

'A couple of hours' wasn't what Twilight had wanted to hear; she really wanted to know what it was that she was supposed to be delivering. "Do you happen to know what's inside of this box?" she asked hopefully.

"Nope," Paula replied plainly.

Both Twilight and Braeburn sighed and lowered their heads. Their curiosity was really starting to get the better of them.

"I guess we'll just have to wait for the Sheriff…" Twilight said in a defeated tone. She could still hear the theatrics coming from the stage on the other side of town. Sighing heavily, she said, "I guess we may as well give Trixie a visit; I'd like to see how much—if at all—she's changed since we last met."

"Here, I'll come with ya guys," Paula said, "Ah haven't seen that unicorn's performance yet, an' ah'm told it's really somethin' special!"

"Oh, she's special alright…" Twilight said beneath her breath.

* * *

><p>A colt trudged back into the audience in a defeated manner, a large amount of sand still caught up in his mane and face. The azure unicorn on the top of the stage yawned to herself.<p>

"Yet another challenger that was a piece of cake. Does that not cement the fact that The Great and Powerful Trixie is _really_ the greatest unicorn—no, the greatest _pony _in all of Equestria!" Trixie announced as more rockets and sparklers shot off around her, mesmerizing the crowd.

They all cheered her name and demanded an encore. "Trix-ie! Trix-ie! Trix-ie!" They all cried.

"That's the 'Great and Powerful Trixie' to you," she called back smugly to the mass as she began for the backstage curtain.

They all roared into a loud cheer. "Great and Powerful Trixie!"

The cheering suddenly died out when a stern voice called out to the magician onstage. "…It's been a while, Trixie," said a pony in crowd.

Trixie stopped dead in her tracks. She recognized that voice. Twisting around, she met the gaze of a purple unicorn that was making her way through the Appleloosians surrounding the stage.

"_You_...!" Trixie exclaimed in anger. "You're that one unicorn from Ponyville that turned the Great and Powerful Trixie into a laughing stock!"

"You put that upon yourself," Twilight replied dryly. "I see you haven't changed a bit since then."

"_Hmph!_" Trixie huffed, "My determination and strive to be the very best will not be wavered by the baseless attacks of some Ponyville ruffian that has no idea what true talent is!"

"I have a name you know," said Twilight.

"Hey Twi," Braeburn began, "who's this mare and why do th' two'a ya seem t' hate each other so much?"

"How long are you going to keep up this charade?" Twilight asked the other unicorn, ignoring Braeburn. Trixie glanced up at the rest of the crowd, all of which still standing around, all were watching what was happening. Trixie was beginning to become uncomfortable.

"Why are you compelled to follow me wherever I go and make a fool of me?" Trixie yelled sadly to Twilight. "The Great and Powerful Trixie-"

"It was pure coincidence that I arrived here at the same time you did, Trixie. I was _hoping_ you may have seen the error in your ways from before, and perhaps that you may not be such a boastful braggart like you once were; now I know I was expecting the impossible," Twilight said to Trixie angrily. It actually surprised Twilight at how hard she was bashing Trixie right now. Did Trixie's arrogance and cocky attitude really bother her that much?

"The Great and Powerful Trixie has had just about enough of your badmouthing of her!" Trixie exclaimed. "Now be gone with you, or suffer the wrath of the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

"Please," Twilight said, rolling her eyes, "You've seen what I can do, and you know very well that I can dish out tenfold anything that you may have in store for me."

Trixie cringed and reeled back a few inches. Eyes wide, she looked upon the crowd that only minutes ago had been cheering her name. Now, they all whispered to each other, all looking at her with doubt in their eyes. It was all that stupid unicorn's fault! Why did she hate Trixie to the point of following her to the ends of Equestria, just to make her look like a fool?

"You haven't seen the end of this…" Trixie trailed off, as if trying to remember something.

"Twilight Sparkle," Twilight said in an annoyed tone.

Immediately regaining her composure, Trixie announced, "You haven't seen the end of this, _TWILIGHT SPARKLE!_" In a large puff of smoke, Trixie fled behind the curtain and withdrew the stage back into a mobile trailer.

"…Well _that_ was excitin'," Paula said to Twilight after a long pause, the audience beginning to thin out as everyone went back to their normal activities.

Twilight was still staring at the trailer, a large scowl on her face. Finally turning away from it and back to Braeburn and Paula, she sighed loudly. "I guess she's just as bad as she always was. It makes me sad to see a pony like her. She must be so lonely…"

"What was it she said she was?" said Braeburn, "That she had 'determination and strive ta be the very best'? I s'pose if she wants to be really well-known, she ain't gonna go and stop performan'."

"It's not what she does, Braeburn," said Twilight sadly, "It's just how she does it. Her attitude completely alienates her from the rest of the ponies, and she doesn't have any friends! I remember when I hadn't yet discovered the magic of friendship, and while I didn't realize it at the time, that life was a dull and isolated one."

"…Well, is there an'thing you could do t' help her out?" Paula asked with general concern.

"Pfft," Twilight replied with a roll of her eyes, "I'm afraid that pony is a lost cause. Anyways, let's head on back to Sheriff Silverstar's, hopefully he's back in by now and we can ask him about that little black box's contents."

The three ponies—Twilight, Braeburn and PaulaRed—all started for the other side of town to the Sheriff's office, away from the packed-up stage parked out on the edge of town, and away from the pony inside the trailer, silently watching them with a sad look in her eyes.


	2. Boxed In

The little box was taunting her. It was always in her grasp, but she could not unlock its secrets. The only thing that lay between Twilight and the contents of the box was its smooth onyx surface and the round, golden lock secured on its side. Twilight was sitting at a table in Sheriff Silverstar's office, staring down the box sitting on the table in front of her. Braeburn was looking out the window, and PaulaRed was pacing back and forth.

"UGH!" Twilight yelled suddenly, breaking free of the quiet that had fallen over the room for the past half an hour, "Where's the Sheriff, PaulaRed? Shouldn't he be back by now?"

"Ah'm afraid I wouldn't know," Paula confessed, "He didn't even tell me where he was headed off to 'r what he was gonna do when 'e got there."

"Did you see which direction he went?" Twilight asked, starting to become desperate. She REALLY wanted to know what was inside that box.

"No. He told me he was goin' out, said he'd prolly gonna be a couple'a hours 'fore he got back, but that was a couple hours ago…" Paula trailed off.

"Y'think the Sheriff may've gotten in some sorta tussle?" Braeburn offered.

"Doubt it," Paula answered, "Silverstar can cert'nly hold his own when the goin' gets tough."

Twilight whined loudly again. This day sucked. None of her friends being around, having to take a long train ride all the way from Canterlot to Ponyville to Appleloosa, just to deliver a little black box from Princess Celestia to Sheriff Silverstar, neither of whom thought it would be a good idea to actually _tell someone what the hay was inside of it_.

"Aw, c'mon Twi," Braeburn said, trying to comfort the strained unicorn, "Just wait a lil' bit longer, ah'm sure the Sheriff's gonna show up any minute!"

Twilight wasn't even listening anymore. Oh yeah, she thought; to top it all off, she got to meet 'The Great and Powerful Trixie' again. What a lousy day it was turning out to be.

Twilight's eyes lit up as she came up with an idea. "Perhaps the Sheriff left the key to this box around here somewhere?" Twilight asked, more talking to herself than Braeburn or Paula.

"Twilight!" Paula said in an upset tone, "Don't go an' think that you can go an' steal from the Sheriff and not have to deal with'tha deputy!" She clanged a hoof against the silver star pinned on her vest. Twilight had forgotten that she was working directly under the Sheriff.

* * *

><p>The streets in Canterlot were bustling as always, and the castle was abuzz with all the high-end ponies living within the embedded city. At the top of the castle, Princess Celestia was sitting at her throne, accompanied by Princess Luna, who had recently had a throne made for herself.<p>

"Do you think it was a good idea to send Twilight Sparkle by herself?" Luna asked her sister.

"I do not think it was a bad idea, sister," Celestia replied. "It's not like she's in any danger or anything, anyways."

"I would think she is in danger if she carries with her that precious 'cargo'," Luna rebutted. "Did you even tell her what it was that she was sending to Appleloosa?"

"I felt that the time had not yet come," Celestia said.

Luna cocked an eyebrow towards the Princess of the Sun. "Do you honestly believe that she would have taken the job had she known the potential consequences?"

Celestia returned Luna's look with one of pouting disbelief, saying, "She is an excellent student and is extremely capable. If I were to trust that box with any pony in all of Equestria, it would be Twilight Sparkle."

"If you say so, sister…" Luna replied as she turned away from her sister to look straight ahead and assume her regal form. Then, she quickly turned back to Celestia and started the conversation back up, "That Shadow is travelling faster with each town that it brings down; perhaps it was a bad idea to send Twilight and 'that' together to Appleloosa? I mean, it does appear to be 'next on the list', as far as location goes."

"Do not worry sister," Celestia assured, "By the time the Shadow reaches Appleloosa, it will all be too late for it."

"I sincerely hope you are right," said Luna.

* * *

><p>Trixie was mumbling to herself as she brushed her mane in front of her mirror. Very little could be made out, save for when she gritted her teeth and hissed, "<em>Twilight Sparkle<em>…!"

Trixie honestly thought that Twilight was 'out to get her'. The performance in Appleloosa was the first since her humiliation in Ponyville, and until Twilight came along, it was going nicely. Trixie was no stranger to the stage—she had performed in front of many crowds from across Equestria, all the while gaining her prestige and popularity. But her status, and her ego, had taken a large hit after word had spread about her lies and cowardice at the feet of an Ursa Minor. Trixie wasn't sure what her next move should be now; if she left Appleloosa immediately, not only would that give Twilight Sparkle a sense of triumph over her, but she'd probably just follow her to the next town and make a laughing stock out of her there, too!

Giving up on ideas for the moment, Trixie plopped on the floor and heaved out a large sigh. She decided she may as well take a nap at the moment, despite it being the middle of noon.

Wait a minute, she thought. It was the middle of noon, so why was it so dark outside?

Trixie got up and looked out her window. A large, dark mass of clouds were slowly rolling in towards Appleloosa.

"Strange…" Trixie said to herself, "I don't remember any clouds being in the sky half an hour ago…The sky was completely cloud-free, so where did these clouds come from?" Trixie retreated back into her trailer and shut the window, then turned to her mirror. "Perhaps it's those pegasi playing some kind of practical joke on the Appleloosians," Trixie sighed to her reflection. If she had wanted to get out of town earlier, she certainly wasn't going to now; it looked like a large storm was brewing, and there's no way she'd let herself get caught in that.

Trixie glanced out her window again to see the storm, and noticed that it seemed a lot closer. "What in the…?" she said, perplexed. The clouds were rolling in much faster than they should be physically allowed to. In fact, the clouds themselves seemed quite different from any normal storm clouds. Trixie knew now that something was up. Looking down at the rest of the town, the civilians seemed none the wiser about the incoming mass of clouds. They were going inside their houses or putting on an umbrella, but nobody else appeared concerned about the ominous cloud fast approaching. "Perhaps it's just me…" Trixie said to herself, and decided to forget about the storm and simply let it pass, not giving it a second thought.

* * *

><p>Twilight felt a sudden twitch. Jerking her head up from the table it had been securely planted on for the past ten minutes, Twilight looked around the Sheriff's room, to Braeburn and Paula, and finally to the window outside, where she immediately stopped. Slowly walking up to the window, and getting strange looks from Braeburn and Paula, Twilight looked around every corner of the window to get a good look outside.<p>

Twilight turned to Braeburn and Paula and said, "When did it get so dark?"

"There was a mass'a clouds comin' in from the north, and it's blockin' out th' sun right now," Braeburn replied.

"Well that was fast," Twilight said, looking back out the window. "Only fifteen minutes ago, the skies were completely clear."

"Meh, th'rain comes and goes, Twah'light," said Paula, shrugging off the dark weather.

Twilight couldn't help but stare at the clouds in the distance. They were coming in fast, that was for sure. Could pegasi be pushing the clouds in?

"Did Appleloosa schedule a rain around this time today?" Twilight asked the two earth-ponies.

"Uh, we don't usually go so far as t' request any rain unless we get a nasty drought, so I kinda doubt those clouds aren't natural," Braeburn replied.

Twilight was surprised at how little the two were concerned with these ominous puffs in the sky. You 'kinda doubt those clouds aren't natural'? They're anything _but_ natural, Twilight thought to herself. She turned to look out the window again and noticed the clouds were even closer now.

This wasn't normal, Twilight thought to herself.

"Hey, where're ya going?" Braeburn called out to Twilight, who was exiting the door, "I thought we were gonna wait fer Sheriff Silverstar!"

"Hold on a minute," Twilight called from outside, already out the door. She squinted at the clouds, as if to try and get a closer look at them. The dark mass in the sky was almost completely on top of the town, and it was still moving in the sky at breakneck speed. What perplexed Twilight the most was how the clouds could move so quickly in the air, while at the same time on the ground there wasn't even a slight breeze; in fact, there was no wind at all—the air was completely dead. As Twilight continued to stare up at the sky, so did any other ponies that were still walking the streets, wondering what it was that the unicorn was looking at.

At the same time, on the other side of town, Trixie was standing just outside her trailer, watching with an unwavering gave at the clouds moving overhead. Both she and Twilight were the only ones that felt something…out of place. Perhaps it was because they were the only two unicorns in town, and none of the earth-pony Appleloosians could "feel" what was wrong.

But suddenly, everyone felt what was wrong.

There was a loud boom in the sky, originating from the center of the dark mass above. Then, the clouds began to shift, moving around individually as quickly as they had on their way to Appleloosa; definable edges formed, and the cloud took the shape of a simple square. The square was right on top of Appleloosa, blocking out the sun behind it. The civilians, along with Twilight and Trixie, couldn't believe their eyes. Everyone stood in silence and stared up at the clouds, of which had now stopped and weren't moving; the square stood overhead, looming over the entire town, not making a sound. In fact, there was a dead silence throughout the entire town as everyone could only look up at the supernatural entity in the sky.

By now, Braeburn and PaulaRed had walked out of the Sheriff's office and joined Twilight in looking up at the sky. They all were at a loss for words at what they were witnessing, and unsure about what was about to happen next.

"What the hay…?" Braeburn managed to whisper softly.

Suddenly, another boom resonated from within the cloud, followed by a large halo of light enveloping the visible square. The ring followed the surface to the corners of the square, where the light gathered into four small orbs of light, one on each corner.

There was another moment of eerie tranquility; the orbs floated motionless in the air, and the ponies below could only watch in horror at what could happen next.

After another several seconds of everyone standing as still as a statue, the cloud resumed its actions. The orbs of light shone brightly for a second, and then shot down bright white beams to the Earth, the impact creating a massive shockwave throughout the entire town. The places where the pillars met with the ground were so far away that they could barely be seen on the horizon. As the light continued to crash into the ground, everyone looked on as a black barrier began to form between each of the pillars. Like a waterfall in reverse, the pitch-black walls crept up the sides of the light pillars, towards the clouds high above. It was at this point that the entire town began to fly into a frenzy.

The villagers were no long hypnotized by the cloud's mysterious antics, but rather in a panic over seeing their town being boxed-in from the rest of the world.

An earth-pony ran up to PaulaRed, exasperated. "Deputy! Where's the sheriff? What the hay is going on?"

"Ah don't know!" Paula yelled back. "Twi!" she called to Twilight from over her shoulder.

"Huh?" Twilight asked, slightly in a daze over what was going on.

"Do y'all have any idea 'bout what the heck this is?" Paula asked desperately.

"No…" Twilight replied. "I have no idea what's happening…"

The black walls completely covered each side of the box formed, and then they expanded upwards and connected together to create a ceiling, completely encasing the entire town of Appleloosa inside of it. Twilight stared blankly at her surroundings, her dulled senses only taking in half of what was happening around her. She tried to shake it off as she regained her composure, and was fully conscious again.

"Everypony calm down!" Twilight yelled at the top of her lungs to the wild crowd running about. Some of them actually stopped and turned to Twilight, waiting for what she had to say.

"Now while I'm just as confused about what has just happened as you all are," Twilight said while taking another look around at their new black-coated prison, "running in circles screaming certainly isn't going to solve anything! Now round up everyone in town and let's all meet up back here at the Sheriff's office!" With that, the crowd dispersed, now with a determined goal.

Yeah, this day was _really_ starting to become the worst day ever for Twilight.


	3. Confrontation

Trixie woke up to the shaking of her shoulder. Opening her eyes and uttering a soft moan, she realized her face was planted into the dirt ground. She quickly picked herself up and dusted herself off, then noticed the mare that had woke her up.

"What is it you want?" Trixie sneered.

The pony gave Trixie a mixed look between confusion and concern. "We're getting everypony together at the Sheriff's office," she began to walk in its direction and turned back to Trixie, motioning the way to go, "come on!"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie does not need to associate herself with the common folk of this town," Trixie said with an air of arrogance, "she is far too sophisticated for that."

The other mare cocked an eyebrow at Trixie in tired sarcasm. "Your face was halfway in the dirt a moment ago," she said flatly.

"Never mind that!" Trixie quickly interjected. Actually, on that note, why had she been sleeping on the ground like that, she wondered? But after taking a second look around her, she suddenly remembered what had happened that made her faint.

The black walls were surrounding the town of Appleloosa, enclosing it in a snug cube. Trixie still couldn't believe what she had witnessed, and she was devastated once she realized it wasn't all a dream.

Trixie turned to the pony that had woke her up, "That was all real? The cloud, the lights, the black things, all of it?"

The mare slowly nodded her head. Trixie fell into a sit in disbelief.

"A unicorn has taken charge an' is currently taking care of this whole mess, more or less," the mare said to Trixie.

Trixie turned her head sharply. "A purple unicorn?" she asked. The mare nodded, and Trixie let out a loud "_hah!_" before walking the opposite direction. "I don't need _her_ to tell me what to do!" Trixie called out from behind her.

"It's not like you have anywhere else to go, so you may as well come along," the mare offered.

"Feh!" Trixie huffed, "The Great and Powerful Trixie does not need somepony else's help—I'll take care of this entire thing myself! I'll find my own way out of this mess!"

Trixie began to walk out to the closest edge of the box that was surrounding the town. The perimeter was surprisingly large, compared to the size of Appleloosa, that is. The whole town covered only a fraction of the entire ground surrounded by the dark walls. It took Trixie a while, but she eventually reached the end of a side, and was face-to-face with the black wall—and face-to-face with her reflection in its surface. She was reluctant to touch it; just what the heck was it, anyways? But, she came all this way, so she may as well…

Trixie tapped a hoof onto the wall, and it didn't even budge. She pushed harder on it, then began hitting it, and then punching it, but nothing happened. Physical attacks weren't doing a thing to this dark barrier; it was time to bring out the big guns, Trixie thought—or rather, the big magic. Backing up a few feet, Trixie glared at the wall in front of her; she began to focus all her strength into her horn, making it glow intensely. She was prepared to blast a hole right through the wall, no matter how strong or thick it may be. It was going to be an all-or-nothing shot, as she was attempting to use as much of her magic as she could to deliver a powerful blow. After pooling as much power as she could into her horn, and her horn was glowing a bright azure, she let it loose to bring the attack upon the barricade before her. A massive blue fireball shot out the tip of her horn and exploded when it made impact with the wall, flinging Trixie back several feet; though she may not look it, she was a very powerful unicorn, yet undoubtedly not as powerful as certain others (Twilight Sparkle). Trixie couldn't see the effect of her attack immediately because of the dust that was thrown up into the air. Getting up from the ground, and letting the dust settle, Trixie waited to see the fruits of her labor. But what she ended up seeing wasn't at all what she had expected.

The wall was untouched, and pristine. Not only that, but the explosion had tossed up a couple feet of dirt directly beneath it, and Trixie could see that the barrier continued downwards into the ground. Digging beneath the wall hadn't even occurred to her before, but now that she saw this, the idea shriveled away. Frantically, desperately, she began to dig at the already loosened soil, hoping that she would see a point in which the darkness stopped, and a path to the outside began; there was no such point. Instead, the barrier continued for as long as she dug, and after a couple of minutes of burrowing Trixie gave up, knowing that trying to dig her way out was useless. Feeling completely defeated, Trixie trudged back to Appleloosa to join with the rest of the civilians stuck in the same situation she was.

As she walked away, she didn't notice the pair of pupil-less white eyes that were watching her from inside the dark veil.

* * *

><p>The entire population of Appleloosa was scrunched into the area directly in front of and around the Sheriff's office, the designated meeting area from Twilight Sparkle. A podium had been dragged out from a storage closet in front of the Sheriff's building, with PaulaRed standing in front of it and glancing out to the audience, taking a quick head count to see how many civilians had come along.<p>

"Alright, everypony, settle down now!" Paula yelled from a pedestal to the crowd gathered around the outside of the Sheriff's office. "Twah'light Sparkle's got some stuff she's gotta tell us!"

The entire town hushed down as they watched Paula back away and Twilight walk to the pedestal—slowly, and with a sad look on her face. It was one of Twilight's worst days, she could easily say that, but just because she was extremely strained didn't mean that she shouldn't try to help the rest of the town.

"As I'm sure you're all very well aware of," Twilight began, "there's been some sort of barrier formed around the entire town."

The crowd erupted, everyone suddenly talking at once.

"ATTENTION!" Braeburn yelled at everyone. The noise died down again.

"Thanks, Braeburn," Twilight said to the colt, and then turned back to the crowd. "Now, I have no idea what this is or why it's happening, but obviously we must do something about it."

Everyone spoke up again, but this time in one unanimous "YEAH!"

"Honestly, I can't think of a single reason why anyone or anything would go and cut off an entire town from the rest of the world, nor do I know _how_ this was able to be done, but we're going to find a way out of here. If all else fails, I'm sure it won't take long for wind of this to reach Princess Celestia, and she'll be able to do something about it. In the meantime, however," Twilight glanced across the crowd, "We will all have to work together, and above all else, _keep calm_; I cannot stress this enough, everypony. Flipping the town upside-down in a frenzy will not get us anywhere, so until we come up with a plan on just how to get out of this place, we're going to have to ask you all to keep about your daily routine; I know this is a bit much to ask for, but there really are no other options at the moment." Stepping down from the pedestal, Twilight motioned to PaulaRed. Paula took the cue and walked up to the podium again.

"A'right, everypony," she began, "I think y'all should take Twi's words to heart as we work together to solve this mess. Twilight, Braeburn and I are all gonna be havin' ourselves a brainstormin' session here inside the Sheriff's office; if anypony has any ideas to contribute or otherwise, we'd be much obliged. Also, I should note that Sheriff Silverstar hasn't been seen since this mornin', and he's most likely outside'a the barrier righ' now. News of our little predicament here will not take long t' reach the Princess, ah'm sure. Meetin' adjourned."

Everyone stood still for a moment afterward, each pony looking around at everyone else around them. After a few concerned looks and awkward silences, the crowd began to disperse, and everyone tried their best as they continued their daily activities whilst ignoring the black border around their town that was blocking off the blue sky and sandy horizon.

* * *

><p>"This is ridiculous!" Trixie muttered to herself as she slowly walked back to Appleloosa, dragging her hooves across the dry dirt floor, "And just my luck, too! Give me fifteen minutes, and I would have been out of this stupid town right now! Instead, I'm <em>stuck<em> here in this town of _simpletons_; it's one thing if they revered and respected me, but now that that _unicorn_," Trixie said 'unicorn' with gritted teeth, "has followed me here to defame me some more, everypony doubts the power and ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie!"

Sure, Trixie could certainly show off with the kinds of magic like what she had just used against the wall, but if she would, it would be a one-move performance—Trixie didn't have the kind of stamina to use such powerful spells in rapid succession.

When Trixie reached shouting distance of Appleloosa's outskirts, she sighed loudly and collapsed onto the ground. "Whyyyy…This is simply awful! And just why the hay is this all happening, anyways?" she asked aloud.

An Appleloosa resident noticed Trixie from the distance and walked up to her. "So, how'd 'handling the entire thing' go for ya?"

Trixie jerked her head up and noticed that it was the same mare that had woken her up earlier. "Leave the Great and Powerful Trixie! She does not need you to patronize her!"

"Hey, we're all friends here," the mare replied kindly, trying to open up to the unicorn. She offered a hoof out in front of Trixie. Trixie sighed loudly and grabbed it as the mare helped her back up.

"Thanks…" Trixie huffed underneath her breath.

As both the ponies began to walk back into town, each stopped suddenly. Their ears perked up, and they stood completely motionless. After a few seconds, they turned around to look at the source of the strange sound they were hearing. Their eyes nearly bugged out of their heads when they saw what the source of the sound was.

Bubbling out from the cracks in the dirt was a black mass; completely undefinable, save for the two pure-white circles blinking at them, what Trixie and the mare could only assume were the thing's eyes.

The shape continued to rise from the ground, staring at the two ponies. Its body seemed to consist of the kind of goop you'd see being mixed in a witch's cauldron. The black form was literally bubbling out of the ground, as if there were an unseen vein of oil that had just sprung below. Apparently fully raised from the ground, standing as high as the ponies that it was looking at, the bulk stood motionless a few yards from the two ponies; it a murky pile of black slime that was staring intensely at them, and it didn't have any emotion in its eyes, nor did it say anything to the ponies. Then abruptly, the mass suddenly began to change shape; Trixie and the mare flinch a few inches backwards. As the gunk that made up its body shifted, pieces of it continued to bubble upwards, small spheres of total black fizzing off the surface of the thing and dissipating in the air. It continued to stare, at Trixie specifically, and the two ponies watching were shocked when the mass had finished its transformation.

What was a pile of dark slop a few moments ago now had a perfect profile of Trixie, an exact copy had it not been completely colored black. Trixie stood, dumbfounded at this thing. What was it? Why did it copy her?

Then, without warning, the fake-Trixie lunged at the real one, and Trixie managed to dodge to the side just as the thing nearly touched her. It stood motionless again, and slowly turned its head to the side to stare at the blue unicorn for another few seconds. Trixie could only stare back in horror, and the mare accompanying her fell to the ground, paralyzed with shock. The black mass squinted at Trixie again, knelt down a few inches, and dove at her again. Trixie preempted the second attack, and quickly dodged the creature, along with giving a swift kick of the back of her hoof square in the being's head. The impact sent its head spinning freely on its shoulders, like a greased gear on a piston. As the black beast's head slowed and it regained its bearings, it looked at Trixie again. Trixie took a battle stance, and the creature appeared to back off; it then looked over to the other mare, who only looked back in fear. The thing decided to go for Trixie's company instead, and jumped towards her.

"DON'T LET IT TOUCH YOU!" Trixie yelled at mare, whose name she had never even learned. Unfortunately, her warning fell on deaf ears, and the mare instead cowered behind her arms in hopes that it would deter the monster from coming at her.

The bubbling mass impacted her, and its body began to shape-shift again, this time overtaking her body; the black slime quickly coated every square inch of her skin, hair and face. She never even had a chance to scream before being covered by the creature's form. Trixie looked on in dismay as the new pony rose up, the same white eyes as before staring back at her. Trixie took the battle stance again, but the creature didn't attack this time; instead, it continued to look on, practically paying no mind to her, and instead appearing preoccupied with something else, going on internally. Unfortunately for it, though, Trixie wasn't going to let it continue uninterrupted.

"YOU…!" Trixie screamed at it, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING! If you think The Great and Powerful Trixie is going to let you attack her, and then possess some Appleloosian, then you've got another thing coming!" With that, Trixie gathered any and all lingering magic back into her horn. Only minutes ago, she'd performed a very powerful attack, and she herself wasn't even sure if she was going to be able to produce any powerful spells, but she couldn't just leave this creature like this, not when it attacked and overcame another innocent pony! Trixie could feel magic gathering in her horn again as the horn began to glow; the creature started to take notice of its surroundings, and of the magical pony in front of it. Realizing what the unicorn was doing, the black pony-outline started to make a run for it, but it was already too late.

Trixie didn't want to harm the mare that was inside of the black goop, assuming she was still alive; she used her magic to draw in as much water and moisture from around the surrounding area that she could—the surrounding area being a desert didn't help very much, and strained Trixie more than she had expected. Water collected at the tip of Trixie's horn and combined with the magic adjacent it. The dark pony took a single step away before Trixie unleashed the power from her horn once again. A massive spray of shimmering water pumped from Trixie's horn in a fast, narrow stream straight at the creature. The collision between black pony and enchanted water created the distinct sound of bones cracking. Flying into a nearby house, the possessor was thrown up against the wall, helpless to the spray of magic that was tearing it from its possessee.

A few seconds later, completely out of breath, Trixie opened her eyes to see exactly what she had just done; the sound of bones cracking hadn't exactly lightened her spirits.

What she saw was the mare from earlier, sitting upright against a house, apparently unharmed and soaking wet. The black goo from before was nowhere to be seen. Trixie ran up to the mare, relieved to see that she wasn't hurt.

"Are you alright?" Trixie asked, concerned.

"Yeah," the mare replied as she struggled to get up. Getting her footing, she stood back up and groaned as she stretched out her back, the same cracking noise as before being heard. "I think you kinda threw my back out with that blow."

"Whoops," said Trixie in apology.

"Hey," the mare said reassuringly, "as long as we're both alright, right?" The mare looked up at Trixie and smiled. Her smile quickly turned into a frown though as she said, in a more serious tone, "Now just what the hay was that…_thing_ that attacked us…?"


	4. Dark Horse

Twilight's reflection was staring back at her from the smooth surface of the little black box sitting on the table. Next to her, Braeburn and PaulaRed were discussing what could be done about Appleloosa's current predicament.

"Do ya think the Sheriff has seen what's happened, an' is out gettin' some help right now?" Braeburn asked hopefully.

"I dunno, Brother," Paula replied doubtfully, "I mean—what's going on outside'a these walls, anyways? This all started when a big ol' cloud came above our city. What happened to th' cloud? Why did it—no, _how_ did it do all this? Ther's just too many unsolved questions."

"…Questions like 'what the heck is in this box'," Twilight interjected in a tired drone. "This was supposed to be delivered to Sheriff Silverstar, and he's not here, and there's no way he's coming back anytime soon. There _has_ to be some kind of key or clue as to opening this box somewhere around this office, now let's make that our top priority right now!" Twilight's curiosity was really getting the better of her—that box was the only thing she could think about anymore. Even the black walls trapping her and the rest of town were a distant thought compared to the black walls of the small cubic box.

"That should be the _least_ of yer troubles, Twi!" Paula exclaimed, "Have ya noticed how we're all _trapped_ righ' now in this town?"

"But what if what's in this box could help us?" Twilight rebutted, "What if what's in this box is _supposed _to help us?"

"Huh? Whattaya mean?" Braeburn asked.

"Well, this is just a hunch," Twilight began, "but honestly, I don't think it's coincidence that I was sent by Celestia herself to deliver some mysterious package here to Appleloosa, of which ends up being boxed-in and cut off from the rest of Equestria the same day."

"Wait…" said Paula, "are you sayin' that Celestia sent'ya here on purpose so that you'd be trapped in here with us?"

"What? No!" Twilight quickly replied, "What I'm saying is that there's something that Celestia and even perhaps Sheriff Silverstar knew that the rest of us didn't, and Celestia made to send this box to Appleloosa so the Sheriff could use it to his advantage!"

"That's a mighty interesting theory, Twilight," Braeburn replied, "but until we figure out more about that box 'r the walls surrounding us, or unless we find the Sheriff and ask 'im ourselves, we're still gonna be in the dark, s'far as info goes."

"…Which leads me to my main point, again." Twilight motioned with her head to the box sitting on the table. "We _need _to _open _this _box_."

Paula sighed loudly. "Twi, even if I agreed with ya, there's no way ta open that darned thing."

Twilight groaned and dramatically fell backwards onto the floorboards. "Nothing's making any seeeense…"

For the next few minutes, nobody said anything, everyone deep in their own thoughts and trying to understand just what is going on in Appleloosa.

Then Twilight's ears perked up. Still lying on the floor, she tilted her head down and pressed her ear up to the ground. "Do you guys hear that?" she asked to the Apple siblings.

"Hear what?" Braeburn asked. But as soon as he had finished asking, he heard it too, and so did Paula. They knelt low to the floor and also pressed down an ear to hear it better.

It was a strange sound. It sounded similar to the sound of rushing water, except not exactly—not water, but it sounded as if there was _something_ 'rushing' underneath the ground, perhaps several or a couple dozen yards below. None of the ponies knew what to make of this weird noise. As they continued to listen in, they could hear it begin to get louder, and louder, and louder…

And closer.

Twilight, Braeburn and PaulaRed only had a split second to make a run for it before the wooden floor of the Sheriff's office exploded, splinters flying everywhere as the thing that had been traveling underground surfaced. Braeburn was knocked into Paula, who had flown into a wall, leaving a distinct pony-shaped depression in the drywall. Twilight had been propelled into the opposite side of the office, and she happened to go head-first into a window, shattering the glass completely and leaving multiple lacerations on her head and neck. The poor purple unicorn was knocked unconscious from the blow, and she blacked out.

As Braeburn and Paula began to rise to their hooves, Braeburn winced in pain, and he turned to notice a square of wood the size of a slice of bread half-embedded in his right side. He collapsed to the ground and groaned in pain as Paula moved closer to get a look at the injury. It took a couple of seconds for them to take notice of what had come out of the ground.

Braeburn and Paula turned around after hearing a loud, wet, slapping sound. They didn't know what to say when they saw the large pile of bubbling black slop, twice as high as they were, moving slowly across the wood-sprinkled floor. It surveyed the room with large white eyes the size of trashcan lids; it looked at each of the three ponies lying damaged and hurt in the room. Then it began to move again, this time towards Braeburn and Paula. The two siblings backed up against the wall, Paula pushing Braeburn behind her, as he was more hurt than she was.

"You wanna fight?" she threatened to the pile. It didn't react to her at all, and continued to slowly move towards her. Scared out of her wits, and determined to protect her brother, she attempted to attack it. Turning around and reeling her hind legs, she kicked the mass just as it was in range of her back hooves. The blow punched two holes right through the creature's body, but the goo quickly reformed to fill in the gaps. The creature paused, and then began to shape-shift; Paula backed up again, realizing there was nothing she could do, as far as fighting back went. Braeburn and Paula were backed into a corner, Braeburn still feeling a sharp pain from the large fragment in his side, which was bleeding a fair amount. The two ponies watched the large mass bubble fiercely as it began separating into four smaller forms, even its two massive white eyes dividing, like a cell, into eight separate eyes. The eyes then traveled across the shape's surface in sets of two, each pair moving towards one of the four new, smaller shapes being formed. Three of the four began to change form again, and within a few seconds, what had been slimy black mounds were now the silhouettes of Braeburn, PaulaRed, and Twilight Sparkle. The black ponies surveyed the room again, using their newly-made legs to walk across the floor as they looked carefully around the room, looking for something.

"HEY!" Paula shouted at the one closest to her, which was also the one that looked like her. She had no clue why a bubbling pile of goop came crashing through the floor and then decided to copy her shape. Colors aside, it looked exactly like her, right down to the two long braids of hair coming out from under her hat. It stopped its search and slowly turned its head to look straight into Paula's eyes with its own pale-white ones. Paula's anger quickly turned into fear, and she cowered closer into the corner under the copy's gaze. Looking her over for a moment, it turned and began to walk closer towards her.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Braeburn yelled as he stood up to confront the creature, but he collapsed back onto the ground after taking the first step forward. He fell to the hooves of Paula's copy, which ignored him completely and walked around him, straight towards Paula.

With no other way to go, Paula made to kick the creature straight in the face when she turned around again and belted her hind legs behind her. Despite still being made of the same black slime as when it was shapeless, the impact this time had a much more sickly cracking sound; the head of the black pony had almost completely severed, hanging only by a few strands on the back of its neck; the colliding force had fused the back of the head with the back of the body. Unfortunately for Paula, the creature was unfazed—the head sunk into its body, and a second later emerged from the stub of its neck, completely healed. It began to move towards Paula again, and its body started to spread outwards around her.

But before the black slime could envelope her, Paula noticed from the corner of her eye a blast of lavender light that compacted into a stream and shot straight through the fake-Paula's head. This was the first time that those blank white eyes had shown any noticeable expression, and it was an expression of surprise—at least, that's what it looked like just before the head was splattered against the adjacent wall. Paula winced from the explosion, some of the goop getting on her face as well. She turned to look at the source of the light, and she saw Twilight standing there, horn aglow with magic, wearing her game-face and ready to deliver another attack.

The other two fake-ponies turned to look at Twilight, just before the fourth pile of slime that hadn't transformed also blew up in a spray of black sludge all over the floor. Upon seeing this, the remaining two made a sprint for Twilight, attempting to tackle her down. Twilight lifted a table with her magic and threw it towards the two; the Braeburn copy jumped over it, while the Twilight copy dodged too slowly and was tossed against the floor by the flying furniture. The Braeburn copy jumped in front of Twilight and swung its back hoof in a circle to roundhouse Twilight. Twilight caught the leg in her hooves, but she wasn't strong enough to completely dampen the blow; still grasping onto the leg, she was swung around and kicked into a chair. The real Braeburn made to get up again, but his injury wasn't ready to let him fight, and he fell once again to the ground. Paula, who wasn't majorly hurt but rather suffering from extreme shock, only stood and watched bug-eyed at the battle between Twilight and these strange beings that had come from the ground below—there was still a gaping hole in the very middle of the room, leading down into shadows.

Paula's watching of Twilight distracted her from noticing the black gunk sliding across the wall, down to the floor to join up with the heap reforming at the headless body of the Paula-copy. As the battle between the black ponies and Twilight raged, the Paula-copy began to regain its head, and it slowly rose back to its hooves, the white eyes opening again when the head finished; the eyes were staring blankly as always, but there was a sinister malice about them now. Braeburn noticed it, and he cried out to Paula to get her attention. He was too late though; by the time Paula turned her head, she was already half-covered in black, the fake Paula trying again to envelope her. Braeburn watched in horror as Paula was wrapped in solid black. The black Paula, now completely formed around its host, turned to Twilight and ran in to join the battle; Braeburn's yelling for his sister fell on deaf ears.

No one had the upper hand in the battle between Twilight and the black ponies. The purple unicorn was certainly holding her own against them, but she was becoming drained as well. As the fight progressed, the copies began changing tactics from head-first to standing their ground. Twilight was much more powerful than anything they had experienced. As the Paula-copy walked up towards Twilight, the unicorn lowered her head and prepared to hit it with another attack, before hearing Braeburn yell to her.

"Don't attack it! Paula is inside of that thing!" he yelled through a dry throat. His wound wasn't fatal, but it certainly was painful, and it put a large strain on the settler-pony.

Twilight turned back to face her new third adversary, and instead of attacking, leapt to one side to avoid it. She didn't want to hurt Paula.

The black ponies took notice of this, and immediately devised a new strategy. The other two began rushing around the room again, continuing to look for what they had been searching for earlier, and the one possessing Paula went directly for Twilight. Twilight attempted to go for the other, non-pony-controlling forms, but the Paula-copy cut her off and backed her into a corner. It didn't do anything else to her except stand in her way, as the other two ransacked the room in their search. Finally, the Twilight-copy had apparently found what they were looking for, and held it up to the light to get a closer look at it as it pulled it out from under a shard of timber. Holding it up to the light, the fake looked at each side and every corner of Twilight's little black box, examining it closely.

"HEY!" Twilight screamed at her copy. Twilight had had enough of this; fed up with what these things were doing, she belted the fake Paula in the face and made a run for her own fake to retrieve the box; but the Braeburn-copy tackled her to the ground, and a struggling Twilight watched her fake—and the black box—descend back down into the large hole. She was pinned on her back, and she couldn't move at all from her position.

"Ungh…Let me go!" Twilight yelled to the foe restraining her. The pony paid no mind to her and only watched the black box go down the hole. Waiting several more seconds—assumingly giving the other a head start, quickly got off Twilight and jumped down the hole with the Paula-copy, which still had the original beneath its black layers. The strain of battle was beginning to sink in; Twilight could only drag herself across the floor to get towards the hole. Looking down it, she saw nothing but a bottomless pit. Her spirits had dropped tenfold after everything that had just happened.

"They have the box…" Twilight struggled to say as she began to feel the small cuts across her face and neck bleeding.

"…And _my sister_!" Braeburn added, not even attempting to get up anymore. "We have to go after them!"

"Yeah, sure," Twilight said sarcastically, "just give me five minutes to catch my breath."

"We have to do _something-_"

"_There's nothing we can do_," Twilight said forcefully. "Not yet, at least…" she gasped for breath and looked up to the door, hearing footsteps.

The door swung open, and an azure unicorn came rushing in and began speaking, "I just encountered the most peculiar…wha—what in the…?"

"How's it going?" Twilight managed to utter to an astonished Trixie as Twilight's eyes started to droop and her vision began to blur. Just before blacking out again, she could hear in the far distance a pony shouting "Help! We need help in here immediately, some ponies are hurt!"

Everything went blank, and Twilight's head hit the floor.


	5. Recovery

She could hear voices, multiple voices, all around her. She couldn't see a thing, though…oh, wait, it's because her eyes are shut. She didn't have the motivation to open them though, so she decided to continue lying quietly on what felt like a bed. She wondered what the ponies around her were talking about. What had happened, exactly? She couldn't really rememb-

"OW!" screamed Twilight.

Finally getting the strength to open her eyes, Twilight's first sight was a sharp shard of glass being held in a pair of tongs right in front of her face. Apparently, the pain she just felt was from a doctor pulling said glass out.

"Ah! You're awake, Twilight Sparkle," the doctor began. The voices in the room died down, and the several ponies that were there with Twilight turned to look at her. Twilight turned her head slightly to get a better look at them, but not too much, as it hurt her neck to do so.

"How're ya doing?" a pony nurse asked Twilight.

"I'm…ugh, well enough, I guess," Twilight replied, feeling a throb in her head and the cuts lining her face and neck. She suddenly remembered the fight that went on in the Sheriff's office, and the black figures, and Braeburn and Paula getting hurt and attacked. "Where's Paula?" Twilight jerked up into a sit on the bed, ignoring the intense pain she felt when she did; "How's Braeburn? What happened to the black goop things? Did they get away with the black box?"

"…So you _did_ meet the same things that Trixie did," a voice spoke in the corner of the room. Everyone turned around to look at the caped blue unicorn sitting up against the wall. Her head was staring up at the ceiling, but she was looking at Twilight from the corner of her eyes. "We all heard the whole story from the yellow stallion with the southern drawl earlier, but I wanted to hear it from you before I believed it." Mentioning Braeburn, Trixie motioned over to Twilight's right; the purple pony turned and saw a lump from under a couple of blankets on the bed.

Relieved that Braeburn was alright, Twilight collapsed back into the bed, some of the metaphorical weight on her shoulders lifted. Twilight brought her attention back to Trixie. "So you were attacked by them, too?"

"Yes, the Great and Powerful Trixie was, but she made quick work of the creature, and without getting a scratch on herself," Trixie smiled crudely and added, "unlike you, apparently."

Twilight was not going to let Trixie belittle the turmoil she and her friends had just faced. She was getting extremely sick of Trixie's attitude, and the mocking of what happened to her and the others at the Sheriff's office made something snap, ever so slightly, in Twilight's head. Trying not to speak through gritted teeth, but instead talking in a very cold tone, Twilight asked the unicorn, "Oh, really? Now tell me, just how many of them did you face?"

Trixie seemed afraid to answer the question. "Um, just one…"

"Just one?" Twilight smiled to herself sarcastically. "Just one…" she silently stared down at her covers for several seconds, then began to speak again, "Well…Braeburn, Paula and I were ambushed by a massive blob that turned into _four_. What kind of an…'entrance' did your attacker make?"

"'Entrance'?" Trixie asked. "Well, I guess we saw it bubbling out from the ground."

"Ah, I see," Twilight replied, still using the same sad, matter-of-factly tone of voice, "When _our_ attacker entered, the floor exploded and sent everything—including _us _and many large splinters of wood—flying across the entire room. Perhaps you may have noticed Braeburn's injury, or maybe you were wondering why my face appears as if it were thrown through a glass window?" Twilight gave Trixie a small smile of resentment. Trixie didn't say another word after that.

"So now we're getting attacked by something from underground, _plus _we're still trapped within the walls around the city?" a random colt asked.

"I…I don't know," Twilight replied, wincing as her head throbbed hard, but she appeared to regain warmth in her voice. It was hard for her to think clearly, and she wasn't sure she was in her right mind right now. "If anything, I'd say they were coming up here in search for something."

"Th' black box from Princess Celestia?" Braeburn asked from his bed. Twilight turned back to look at the yellow stallion who had just popped out from under the blanket. He seemed fine, just very drained of stamina. "Before we started fighting them, they'd completely ignored us n' were searchin' for something around the office. Since they left righ' after finding it, I'd say that was their target in th' first place."

"I couldn't agree more, though this raises the question of why one went for Trixie, who I can only assume was a fair distance from the Sheriff's office…?" Twilight glanced at Trixie for confirmation, and the other magical pony looked back apprehensively. After a few moments, Trixie responded.

"Yes, I was on the town's outskirts," she stated softly.

"Hmm…" Twilight was deep in thought. Then she turned to the Appleloosians in the room with her. "Have there been any other reported attacks?"

"Ah don't think so," one of them replied.

Twilight frowned slightly at her bed sheets. "They only attacked twice, and one of the locations had exactly what they were looking for. If that's the case, shouldn't they have only attacked the one place where they thought the box was? Why bother randomly attacking some random pony outside of town?"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is _not_ 'some random pony'," Trixie said in offense, "She performs amazing and mesmerizing acts of magic and wonder for all the commoners to witness in awe!" She spoke highly of herself while pouting in the corner of the room, still taken aback by Twilight's attitude earlier.

Twilight rolled her eyes at Trixie's comment and continued to think about these perplexing questions. But then inspiration came to her, in the form of Trixie's previous backlash, no less.

"Trixie!" Twilight outburst at the other unicorn in the room. Trixie jumped from this, partially afraid that Twilight was going to attack her or something. "Did you ever perform any magic after Appleloosa was surrounded, and before you were attacked?"

Trixie thought for a moment. "Actually, I guess I did. Whilst attempting to break a hole in the wall, Trixie did perform a single spell; just the one, though."

"That's all it takes," Twilight replied, speaking as she began to delve back into her thoughts; she started to make an outline of what has probably happened in these past few hours…

Assuming these 'things' arrived in Appleloosa at the same time the black walls did, that means that they had the chance of seeing Trixie perform magic in an attempt to destroy the wall. They saw her as a threat, and attempted to eliminate her before their initial attack on the Sheriff's office. Despite failing with Trixie, they went ahead with the plan, perhaps thinking they could get it done before Trixie reached the Sheriff's, seeing as how she was so far away. Never having seen me perform magic, they mustn't have seen me as a threat. After I had used magic, though, they once again went to kill the unicorn using it. They see magic as a threat to their plan. But what plan is that, exactly…?

"You okay, Twi?" Braeburn asked Twilight, who had her eyes closed and was muttering to herself.

…Okay, think, Twilight: timeline of events. The Princess has me bring a black box to Appleloosa—to Sheriff Silverstar, to be exact. I arrive, the Sheriff said he'd be gone but should have been back by then. A dark cloud appears above town and entraps it. Trixie uses magic to destroy the wall, fails, and is attacked by black figures. Finally, more of them appear in the Sheriff's office and take the black box…

"…Doctor," Twilight came out of her trance to ask the question, "am I fit to leave yet?"

"Leave?" the doctor exclaimed, "You're severely banged up! Heck, you were attacked only an hour and a half ago!"

"Wait, I've been out that long!" Twilight exclaimed back, "There's no time to sit around! It was one thing when Appleloosa's biggest problem was being caged in by some unknown force, but now that 'force' is _attacking _us, and we have to fight back!"

"We can fight back on our own, Twilight," Braeburn replied, concerned for the unicorn, "We don't need yer assistance."

"Yes, leave that to the Great and Powerful Trixie." Trixie got up from the floor and whisked around Twilight's bed, her ego apparently recovered. "Besides, you earth-ponies don't stand a chance against these things without _my_ help."

"Wha's that supposed to mean?" Braeburn asked in offense.

"Well, in all honesty, the only thing that keeps all of you simpletons from being completely destroyed by these shadows is the magic of a unicorn—you can kick them all you want, but it will do you no good," Trixie replied arrogantly; she was right though, and had learned this firsthand during her battle with her own copy.

Braeburn thought hard for a moment about what Trixie said, though he had a scowl on his face from her insult. Then Braeburn got up and out of the bed, groaning slightly as he stood as firmly as he could on all four hooves. "If that's the case, then I guess we don't have much of a choice. Trixie, was it? You and Twilight Sparkle are going to have to team up and stop this menace!"

"Wait, WHAT?" both unicorns shouted at the same time.

"I saw myself what Twi's capable of, and adding another unicorn into the mix will surely give you guys the upper hand," Braeburn continued, unaware that the two despised each other.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie will not-"

"Oh for crying out loud," Twilight interrupted, "will you stop it with the third person already? It's getting really, _really_ annoying."

"Don't interrupt Trixie when she is speaking!"

"As if you have anything important to say!"

Trixie's eye twitched. "_TWILIGHT SPARKLE_! I have had just about ENOUGH of you!"

"Oh, so I'm wasting _your_ time?"

The other ponies in the room looked back and forth between the two unicorns as they continued to chew each other out. Braeburn had had enough of this nonsense. "Quiet, both o' you! What in tarnation is wrong with ya? Appleloosa needs the BOTH of you to get over yer own little issues between each other and fix this mess! Remember the whole 'town is trapped' thing goin' on righ' now?"

Twilight and Trixie stared down at the ground in shame.

"So what are _we_ supposed to do?" Trixie asked.

"That's up to you an' Twi," Braeburn replied. "Since my sis's gone right now," Braeburn's eyes looked distant as he said this, "I'm basically in charge of town; I give both you and Twilight complete freedom t' do as you see fit in Appleloosa, if it means fixin' this problem and savin' my sis."

"You mean the two of us have to agree on a plan?" Twilight asked hesitantly, afraid of the answer she might receive.

"Twi, you still need to get some rest, so this Trixie girl here is gonna be doing most of the legwork, but it's your _teamwork_ that'll help solve this whole ordeal. I suggest you two warm up to each other and devise some kinda plan." He waved out the crowd in the room, and crawled back into bed after they left; he too needed to rest his body after what happened. "If either of you need any assistance from Appleloosa, it'll be as simple as askin'." He lowered both his head and his tone when he said to Twilight, "Twilight, please—save my sister."

"Don't worry," Twilight assured, "Trixie and I will get to the bottom of this!" Trixie made a very loud and clear 'tch', accompanied by a rolling of her eyes.

Twilight turned her attention to the azure unicorn, pointing a scolding hoof at her. "And YOU had better get an attitude adjustment, and fast—you're helping, whether you like it or not."

"Trixie will certainly comply, but only because she has to."

Twilight ignored that last statement for the sake of saving time. "So then, what's the first thing we should do? We sure don't have much to go on, and I don't know how much longer that doc expects me to stay in here, but I'm leaving no later than an hour from now. Trixie, I suppose you should just patrol Appleloosa's streets and make sure no more of those shadow-blob-things show up again; considering that they already have what they came here for, hopefully no more will show up, but you can never be too careful."

Trixie sighed heavily and over-dramatically. "Fine, Trixie will 'patrol the streets', but she will NOT become your errand-runner, Twilight Sparkle!"

"Fine by me," Twilight replied, "just get out there. And why not try mingling with the citizens while you're out?" Twilight said to Trixie as the capped unicorn made her way out the door. "Instead of focusing on making everyone you meet adore worship you, perhaps you should try and make some actual friends!"

Trixie rolled her eyes again at the comment, not that Twilight could see from behind her.

Trixie was lying up against the base of the clock tower, watching the different ponies that walked by; despite trying to go about daily life, everyone looked nervous, and they were always looking up at the sky. After having walked for five minutes, Trixie gave up and decided to sit back and relax. It's not like anything is going to happen anyways, she thought. Every once in a while, a pony may glance up at her and stare for a few seconds—the caped, capped, dark-blue unicorn certainly did stand out from all the country-folk of Appleloosa. Not wanting to make any more eye contact with gazers, Trixie pulled down the rim of her hat to the point where she could only see the dirt ground right in front of her. She was considering taking a nap, when out of nowhere a pony walked up to her and spoke to her.

Trixie could barely see the hooves of the mare standing in front of her. "Excuse me?" the other pony asked hesitantly.

Trixie considered whether to acknowledge her, or to just pretend to be asleep to spare herself the trouble of small-talk. On a whim, though, Trixie lifted the rim of her hat and looked to the mare asking for her? "Yes? What do you want of the Great and Powerful Trixie?"

"Well…I heard that you and Twilight Sparkle are working together to save Appleloosa?"

"More or less," Trixie replied in a bored drone, unaware of the irony in her statement.

"Well…" the mare began again, "I have this here, for the both of you." Turning to her side, Trixie only now noticed the saddlebags on either side of her. The mare took off the bags and set them on the ground for Trixie. "I've been hearing a lot about you two in town, and that you're planning on going down that hole in the Sheriff's office, so—"

The unicorn was taken aback by the last part of that sentence. "We're going to WHAT? Terribly sorry, but Trixie believes you are mistaken. We have no current plans to go down into such a place."

"Oh…" the mare seemed somewhat disappointed. "Well, you could still make good use of the stuff I packed in those bags, whether you do go in or not. I put in some food and basic supplies, so it would be pretty useful in a cave like that, I think."

"Um, well, thanks," Trixie finally said, wanting the awkward encounter to end as soon as possible. She gave a nod and a small smile to the mare before taking the bags, which made the mare look pretty happy with herself, and she gave a large grin back to Trixie before going off on her own way.

_Ugh…hurry up, Twilight Sparkle_, Trixie thought to herself.


	6. Harmless Spelunking

Trixie sighed hard. "Yes, yes, just add it to the pile, please."

The colt tossed his personal lucky horseshoe onto the ever-growing pile of gifts and supplies. The poor little wagon Trixie was given to carry it all in was now bending in at the middle. Trixie had to use her magic plus a little muscle just to get the wagon's wheels to move. In only one hour, well over half of Appleloosa came by Trixie to give her and Twilight their regards and to pray for a safe journey down into the dark pit still in the Sheriff's office. Twilight had said she's be ready to go in an hour, so Trixie was slowly making her way back to the hospital; honestly, it was more of a wooden house with some basic medical supplies in it than it was a hospital.

The hospitality of these ponies was starting to get on Trixie's nerves, not to mention the rumor that spread like wildfire that she and Twilight were going to brave the odds and venture down into the deep pit created by the black beasts. What are they, nuts? Trixie had never considered even attempting to go down there, but the more and more gifts she receives, the more and more it appears inevitable she and Twilight are going to do so. Going down a black pit is one thing, but to go down accompanied by only _Twilight Sparkle_? It wasn't a pretty thought for Trixie.

By the time Trixie reached the front door of the hospital, the pile on the wagon was twice as high as she was, excluding the hat. There were a dozen ponies that had followed behind her, cheering her on and putting back anything that fell out the wagon behind her. Trixie was just about to open the door before the door handle glowed a purplish-pink, turned, and opened up to show one battered Twilight Sparkle. She looked no better than she did an hour ago.

Twilight was surprised to be greeted with Trixie lugging a wagon full of miscellaneous objects. "What's with all the stuff?" Twilight asked the magician.

"We haven't even done anything yet, and we're local heroes," Trixie sighed.

Twilight glanced behind the wagon and saw several ponies cheering for her and Trixie. The purple pony smiled. "How have you been enjoying yourself? Everypony here is pretty kind, aren't they?"

"Pft," Trixie replied snidely; she lowered her voice a level before saying, "Nopony will leave me alone! This is getting really annoying! I'd tell _you_ to pull the wagon for a bit, but…" she looked Twilight up and down, "you look simply awful. I wouldn't want you to get any worse than you are right now."

Twilight couldn't tell if that was supposed to be a nasty comment or a generous act. Considering Trixie, perhaps it was a little of both; or maybe she was trying to be snide, but ended up being accidentally generous because of it. "Did anything happen while I was in bed?"

"Nothing interesting. Although, everypony here is apparently under the impression that we're going to brave that lightless hole-in-the-ground at the Sheriff's office."

"What? They think we're going to go _in_ there? You couldn't even see the bottom!"

"Glad to hear you agree," Trixie replied. "I was worried you were actually going to take a liking to the idea."

"Well…" Twilight began, putting a hoof to her chin.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie will NOT, I repeat, NOT, be going down there! It'd be suicide!"

"You don't know that."

"Look at yourself!" Trixie waved a hoof at Twilight's battered body. "_That_ was only from _four_ of those creatures, _and_ you had two other ponies with you! I lucked out with the one that attacked me, but we have absolutely no idea how to fight these things, what they're capable of, or just _how many_ lurk deep underground!"

Twilight's plain expression curled into a smile. "You just acknowledged that you lucked out with that creature you fought."

Trixie jolted upright, but immediately collected herself and became calm again. "It was just an expression, Twilight Sparkle—a figure of speech. Besides, there's no such thing as 'luck'. There is only skill, which _I_ have plenty of."

"Yeah, sure." Twilight shoved the matter aside to discuss more important topics. "If we aren't going down the hole, what _are_ we going to do? The most we can do for this town aboveground is protect it from another attack, not that anything else is actually attacking anyways. Trixie, we _need_ to get that black box back; I know it has something to do with everything going on, and if we want to solve this mess, we _have_ to get it back!"

Trixie knew that Twilight was right, but she didn't want to admit it. Nor did she want to venture into a pitch-black, unknown cave with no one except _Twilight Sparkle_ for company, but it wasn't like Trixie really had a choice in the matter. "If we're going to do so, we need to make a plan."

Twilight perked up a bit after seeing that Trixie was actually being cooperative. "Yes, a plan…a plan…um, how many of those black pony things do you think may be down there?"

"I'd rather not think about it," Trixie replied dryly. That really was their largest concern, but again, it wasn't like there were any other options other than pursuing their perpetrators. "I think we should just assume that we'll have enough ability to keep out of sight. Besides, we're unicorns—magic is commonplace to us, and there are certainly a large amount of stealth spells out there!"

The two unicorns began to walk towards the Sheriff's office, which had by now been boarded off to keep any curious onlookers from entering. Trixie was still lugging the wagon behind her. "There are probably one or two useful things in this heap of junk," Trixie said while looking behind her at the load, scolding it with her eyes; she didn't enjoy all the kindness and generosity of this town's ponies. "We should shuffle through all of this and leave behind all we don't need—I have no idea how long we may be down there, so…"

Another problem that hadn't really been considered until now. Twilight looked down at the ground. "There's no telling what lies beneath this town. If I were to take a guess, based on the sounds of their movements underground that I heard earlier, it's most likely a complex of random tunnels—like what you'd find in an ant farm, or something."

Trixie gave Twilight an amused look. "Oh really? 'Based on the sounds of their movements'? Sometimes you seriously overdo the whole 'brainiac' routine, Twilight Sparkle."

"It's not a 'routine'," Twilight snapped back. "It's called _logic_, Trixie; perhaps you could try it out sometime instead of having _me_ do all the thinking between the two of us."

Reaching the sealed-up door of the Sheriff's office, Trixie stopped pulling the wagon and collapsed onto the ground with a large sigh. After giving herself a minute to rest, both she and Twilight began to go through the small mountain of gifts. Unfortunately for the girls, just about nine out of every ten items were all but useless—many items were good luck charms, novelties, or even the exact same item that they just looked at. If they had a bit for every length of rope or crowbar they found in that pile of junk…

Twilight cocked an eyebrow at some of the things she and Trixie were pulling out from the pile. "Exactly whose idea was it to give us a stained-glass mug?"

Trixie looked up from the poem she was reading to look at it. "It, ah, certainly is…uh, hm."

"Do they think we have an actual _use_ for any of these novelties?" Twilight asked aloud. Trixie only shrugged and went back to the small poem written for her and Twilight, though she read it as if it were just for her. Twilight gave the mug another once-over before placing it in the rather large 'don't bring' pile. "Do half these ponies even know what we're even doing? Then again, I suppose it's best that everypony doesn't freak out. That would only make things worse."

Trixie picked up a fuzzy pink quill from the pile and scribbled out a certain unicorn's name several times throughout the poem before folding it up and stuffing it into one of her saddlebags; she was carrying the two bags given to her by the soft-spoken mare earlier, the one that had started this whole 'gift-giving' business. "I'm surprised that these ponies have taken the fact that they're trapped in a small box separate of the world with no more than a grain of salt. Just look around." The two glanced up from the little fortress of junk they'd created to look at the passersby. Most citizens looked no more than a tad bit fearful, or even a little annoyed.

"I think they don't realize how deep of a situation we're in," Twilight replied. "But ignorance is bliss though, and I don't see any reason to snap them out of their delusion."

"Hmph," Trixie huffed. "What annoys me is that they all _expect_ us to fix everything. Their taking us for granted, probably because we're 'all-powerful unicorns' or some dumb thing like that."

A few more minutes passed without any conversation, and the two unicorns had all but a very small assortment of useful items to bring with them, half of it being food. Twilight slipped on her own saddlebags from when she came to Appleloosa, and she and Trixie split the load into their respective bags.

_It was only this morning that I entered Appleloosa,_ Twilight realized, _and now it feels as though days have gone by._

Trixie tossed aside the 'DO NOT ENTER' sign tacked to the planks covering the front door. Encasing the nailed-in wood with her magic, Trixie slowly yanked the planks off from the wall. She removed the last plank and opened the door. The lights inside were off, and there was no natural light coming in through the windows, which were boarded up as well. The real reason this had been done was to prevent anything that may come out of the hole from getting out of the Sheriff's office.

Trixie dipped her head past the doorway and looked around inside. Seeing a light switch inside right next to the door, Trixie flipped it on, but nothing happened. _I suppose that fight destroyed all the lights in here. It certainly looks like a brawl went down_. Trixie had seen the room earlier, but had only gotten a quick glimpse of it. That she had a better look at the room though, plus the darkness it was shrouded in, made Trixie uneasy.

She turned back to Twilight. "Are you positive you want to go through with this?"

"Of course I am," the battered purple pony replied. "I made a promise to Braeburn—to Appleloosa, to Princess Celestia! We have no other choice, Trixie. We're GETTING that box BACK."

Trixie looked back into the dark room uneasily, then she turned back to Twilight, and then back to the room. "Very well, let's go! We're not making any progress sitting here!"

Trixie lit her horn as she walked inside, sidestepping large splinters of wood and a shard of glass here and there. Not far behind was Twilight, who also lit her horn upon entering. Trixie was walking around the room, taking in all there was to see. Twilight, on the other hand, didn't look like she wanted to familiarize herself with the sight.

"Can we please continue down?" Twilight asked to Trixie, who was on the other side of the hole. There was a slight pain in her tone.

Trixie looked over to Twilight, then down the hole. "I doubt we can simply jump down—who knows how deep that hole is?" Glancing around, Trixie saw a piece of wood about the size of her hoof, picked it up with her magic, and moved it over the large hole before letting it go. Both she and Twilight gave a small sigh of relief when they heard the clunk of wood on rock not two seconds after it had dropped down.

"Well, that's not too deep; think we can jump down?" Trixie asked her studious associate.

Twilight didn't like that idea, especially considering how she was already pretty banged up as it was. Looking around the scraps on the floor, Twilight eventually laid eyes on the planks just outside the entrance that Trixie had removed. Picking them up with her magic and placing them edge-to-edge, Twilight effectively made a floating platform. Jumping on the platform while supporting it with her own magic, Twilight then moved it over to Trixie. "We don't have all day," Twilight replied, beckoning the magician to get on board.

Hesitating at first, Trixie eventually made a leap for the platform, almost knocking Twilight off when she landed. "Whoops," Trixie plainly apologized.

After giving Trixie the stink-eye for a moment, Twilight began to descend their support to the floor of the tunnel below. Thankfully, the attackers from earlier had apparently escaped the same way they had come, so there was only one way to go deeper into the tunnel. Twilight continued forward using her magic stand to transport her and Trixie onward. The tunnel was slanted downward, and the deeper they went, the colder and damper it seemed to become. Trixie got a slight shiver; "In hindsight, I suppose we shouldn't have tossed that knitted blanket…" the azure pony complained.

The tunnel itself was a winding tubular hole, the sides of the cave being round and rather smooth, as if it had gone through years of erosion, but it also had a fair amount of bumps and waves to it. _How on Earth did they dig a hole in this way?_ Twilight thought to herself. Condensation built up on the ceiling and the walls, and every so often a stray cold drip of groundwater hit one of the ponies' faces.

Five minutes after they had initially entered the hole, Twilight stopped suddenly. There was no longer only one way to go; the unicorns had found themselves in a four-way junction between tunnels, none of them looking any different from the other.

"Great," Trixie immediately began to grumble, "now what do we do?"

"Perhaps if we just stay here for a bit," Twilight began, "we'll hear or see something at the end of one of the tunnels that'll hint towards where the black box is."

"Are you hearing yourself?" Trixie replied crudely.

Twilight glared at Trixie, then dispersed her magic on the platform, causing the two to fall a yard onto the ground. "Fine, then—YOU take control, and choose which way we go."

"Erm…" Trixie began to stutter, but was immediately interrupted by a massive groaning, coming from deep within the tunnel on the left. It was a very haunting sound, a mix between a cry of pain and one of malice. The very sides of the tunnel shuddered with the long noise. After it stopped, Twilight and Trixie paused and looked back at each other, wide-eyed. "…Let's NOT go there."

"Oh-ho," Twilight replied amused, as she re-took control of the platform and turned to the left tunnel, "we're DEFINITELY going there."

"Twilight Sparkle, you are _insane_."

"We're here to investigate, Trixie, and there's no better place to look than towards the big creepy groaning noise!"

"You're testing fate with every passing minute!" Trixie brought her voice down a level as sounds of industry in the distance hit her ears. "Do you hear that? How are we supposed to blend in there? By the sounds of it, there must be _hundreds_ of those creatures working down there!"

With a roll of her eyes, Twilight's horn became engulfed in another layer of her magic, and her body and the platform's visibility was instantly halved. Trixie looked slightly astonished, and Twilight looked over to her from the corner of her eyes. "Do you want me to do you, too?"

"Trixie can take care of HERSELF, thank you." Turning away from Twilight, Trixie looked up at the ceiling, trying to remember how exactly an invisibility spell was produced. Guessing on a random choice, her horn glowed bright blue and she too became only half-opaque. Trying to one-up Twilight, though, Trixie was noticeably less noticeable.

The noises of breaking of rock became louder and louder as Twilight and Trixie neared the source. They both turned off the light from their horns so as to not draw attention, and they put more effort into their invisibility spells, turning completely invisible by the time they reached the tunnel's exit.

What the two unicorns saw made their jaws drop.

Not a single thing could be seen amongst the pitch-black of the cave, save for the hundreds of thousands of pairs of white, pupil-less eyes moving amongst the apparently massive cave. Among the small, pony-sized eyes was a single pair of enormous ones, staring emotionless at the activity going on around it.

To get a better look, Twilight and Trixie gave their eyes a night-vision enchantment. The cave was huge, and thousands of black, pony-shaped creatures were moving, marching, and digging. There was a lot of digging going on, all done by the bare hooves of the black beasts. Donning the massive white eyes was an equally massive sphere of pure black spite. It was one huge ball, its surface completely smooth and flawless. There were only three protrusions on it—a wavy, tail-like base, which flowed into the ground like smoke; and two twig-like arms, which on the ends set two gigantic, four-fingered claws. Despite its massive size—from top of the sphere to the bottom, at least five stories—it appeared weightless, and hovered twenty feet above the ground, only supported by the wisp of smoke tipped on the very surface of the stone floor. There was a considerable space surrounding it, and the walls by its left and right appeared scratched to the point of collapse.

"Trixie…" Twilight whispered, at awe at what she was viewing, "I think this is going to be much harder than we ever imagined."

* * *

><p>*Author's Note: Quick question, readers-I've read around, but there seems to be no clear answer as to how exactly a <em>thought<em> is written in a story. I prefer to use italics, but is that the correct way? Also, don't forget to give some feedback, I'd love to hear your opinions!*


	7. Pitch Black

The clink and clang against stone never stopped. Rocks ranging in size from pebbles to boulders were being pushed along designated paths and out to some unknown place. Exactly where the rocks were being taken wasn't of any interest to Trixie and Twilight. Still using their magic to make themselves invisible, the two were slowly and carefully making their way across the massive complex to investigate everything going on. It was a pretty challenging feat, considering just about any room to walk was already being used by one of the lifeless black creatures digging in the cave.

The smooth, gray rocks were damp from moisture in the cave. This interested Twilight. _There must be a natural well down here somewhere, whether or not they dug it up on purpose, I can't say. The question is, would these creatures even need to drink any water?_ Twilight stopped suddenly when she stepped on a small section of clay. Trixie bumped into her backside a second later, having not seen the invisible pony stop.

Trixie wanted to tell Twilight off, but she knew that speaking right now wasn't an option—those black pony-copies were working but a few yards from her and Twilight. Trixie wanted to talk, because she wanted to ask Twilight just why the heck she stopped out of nowhere, and where the heck she was planning on going now. Only now did she realize that the two of them wouldn't have many opportunities to be able to communicate while down here in the cave. 'Hindsight' seemed to be a word regularly popping up in Trixie's head as of late, but her question was answered suddenly in a way she didn't expect.

Writing was magically being carved out of a patch of clay on the ground in front of her and Twilight. Trixie continued to watch the letters appear; she knew it had to be Twilight writing the message in the clay for her: _'Suspect water source nearby. Pony-fakes may need water, food. Let's try and find a well/stream.'_

Trixie dug her hoof into the same patch of clay, and wrote a single confirming '_okay_' to Twilight. After biting down on the tip of Twilight's tail again—to stay together—the unicorn duo continued down the path they were already on. Compared to the one large room of the cave, they were currently in a deep, narrow ditch. The cave itself was a good several stories tall, with a circular ceiling and floor. Within the floor of the room, there were plenty of said ditches dug deep down, bridges connecting the upper floors above. Despite looking very random and chaotic upon first glance, the digging method was actually quite well planned out and articulate.

Each ditch branched down and out of the main cave; into where, Twilight and Trixie did not know. There must have been thirty horizontal ditches sown into the floor, and they were randomly trying a single one. Hopefully, either all the ditches led to the same place, or the unicorns were lucky enough to have chosen the right one first.

Twilight and Trixie continued down the small tunnel, every so often bracing against the wall to avoid a dark pony walking up or down the same path. After a couple minutes of slowly and carefully making their way down the slippery dark trail, an exit to another room was within sight. The unicorns picked up their pace a bit to see what was ahead.

The two trotted out the tunnel and into the new room, which was even larger than the dug-out one they had entered from earlier. Twilight was awestruck once again as she tried to take in the entire sight, and Trixie couldn't help but utter a soft "wow…"

Instead of the horror they had just seen before, with all the black creatures digging away at the cave's interior, this place was much more serene. There were very few of the fake-ponies here, and unlike the excavation site from before, this cave appeared to have been naturally formed. The cave had a massive underground lake and was full of stalactites and stalagmites; a very warm, relaxing steam was emanating off the surface of the water. The two unicorns were thankful that they were invisible; someone otherwise would've seen how frizzy the steam was making their manes.

"I knew it," Twilight replied softly, to herself more than to Trixie. Trixie could hear just by Twilight's voice that she was pretty proud with herself.

The azure unicorn took a look around to make sure none of their enemies were too close nearby. After seeing the cost was clear, she came closer to Twilight and whispered, "I can tell from here that this water must be pretty hot. Why on earth is it so warm here, and yet so cold throughout the rest of the cave?"

"I don't know Trixie," Twilight honestly replied. "But let's take note of this, and of anything else we find out down here. Now's not the time for answering the questions, anyways; we can do that once we get back out of here and recollect our thoughts in Appleloosa."

"If you say so…"

Though the two had tossed the stained-glass mug, Twilight did happen to bring along a glass jar, which she and Trixie had been given among their pile of junk (Celestia knows why a jar…), and she took it out of her bag and dipped it in the pool, holding onto the jar with her magic. After filling the jar halfway, she sealed the lid back on and quickly brought it back into her bag. Their supplies, like them, were completely invisible, but Twilight still tried to disturb their surroundings as little as possible. "What now, Trixie?"

The young magician mare glanced around the natural spring. The entire floor of this particular cave was part of the lake, save for ten feet of shoreline that spread out parallel to the wall where the tunnels were. On a quick inspection, Trixie found that there were holes lined up among the wall—all the ditches on the left side must lead to the spring, for whatever reason. "I think, if we're here to investigate, we should watch these pony-imposters for a few minutes; see exactly what it is that they're doing."

"Good idea," Twilight replied in a low tone. "Y'know, I think we should create a name for these things, don't you think?" Since Trixie was still invisible, Twilight didn't see the strange look the mare gave her. "We're always calling them one thing or another—let's just make a name up."

Trixie shrugged and tilted her head back in amusement; again, not that Twilight could see her. "Whatever floats your boat, Twilight Sparkle."

"Okay…how about…hm. How about 'Odium?" Twilight asked Trixie.

"Odi-what? Where'd you get _that_ from?"

"If I'm not mistaken, it's Latin for 'hatred'. I know how everypony says 'hate is a strong word', but I'm feeling some _pret-ty_ strong emotions against them."

"Takes a bit of effort to say, don't you think?" Trixie once again felt that this was just Twilight trying to show off her vast knowledge of trivial facts, but even Trixie knew that now wasn't the time to start up an argument, so she let it slide. This time. "But again, whatever floats your boat. If you seriously want to call them 'Latin hate', be my guest, I'll even play along."

"Ooh, alright!" Twilight either hadn't detected the tone of arrogance in Trixie's voice, or she had simply ignored it. "Now then, let's go investigate the _Odium_!"

"Shh! Keep your voice down, idiot!"

As they neared their subjects, the two unicorns stopped talking altogether, and they slowed their pace, trying their hardest not to make too loud a noise when placing their hoof onto the damp stone floor. There were three 'Odium' standing right at the spring's edge, and they hadn't moved a muscle since Twilight and Trixie had first laid eyes on them from the other side of the cave, almost three minutes ago. They appeared to be staring out at the lake, though it was hard to tell for sure, considering how they had no pupils.

Their behavior was confusing Twilight. _What in Equestria are they doing? They haven't even budged! Shouldn't they be working right now, digging rocks or whatever?_ It was pitch-black in the cave, and the only reason Twilight and Trixie could see right now was because of their night-vision spells, but how were the Odium able to see in this darkness? _Were they actually able to see, or were they simply using their other senses to guide them? _ Far too many questions were buzzing in Twilight's head, and not even one was any closer to being answered.

Out of nowhere, the three black creatures began to move again, and like a robot suddenly being flipped on, they walked back into one of the tunnels, ready to work again. The unicorns glanced around to make sure there were no other Odium around, and after seeing the coast clear, began to talk to one another.

"What was _that_ all about?" Trixie asked snidely, as if insulting the Odium's recent actions to be very stupid.

"Don't know…" Twilight glanced up the tunnel that the three had entered. "Let's follow them, up this tunnel. It's the farthest on the left of this wall here, so if I were to guess, it'd also be closest to—"

Trixie didn't need Twilight to finish her sentence. "We've done many a stupid thing today, Twilight Sparkle, but there is NO WAY you're getting me to go anywhere NEAR that massive black Odium thingamajig. Perhaps you didn't realize when you first saw it that it is FIVE STORIES TALL and sports TWO GIANT CLAWS that are JUST AS HIGH?"

"It looked really slow to me," Twilight replied defiantly. "Not the brightest bulb, if you catch my drift—our chances of getting caught won't change just because we go near it."

"Didn't you _see_ the huge scratches dug in the walls around it? That's all pure brute force!" Trixie had taken a lot of crap from Twilight today; the purple unicorn had made all the important decisions, and the poor magician had little choice but to comply. Trixie had no choice but to draw the line at some point. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is NOT going to become your personal henchmare, Twilight Sparkle!" With a snobby 'humph', she twirled around to face away from her companion. "_You _can go ahead _without _me. Simply come back when you're ready to go somewhere that _isn't_ _there_."

Twilight growled at Trixie at first, then she turned back to face towards the tunnel and away from Trixie, giving a 'humph' of her own in retort. "Fine, I'll go _without_ you. Just try and not get caught, Trixie—we wouldn't want you to mess anything up."

The two invisible ponies took a moment to make several faces at the other, unaware that the other was doing the same thing. Afterward, Twilight began up the tunnel to more closely investigate the massive Odium they had seen earlier.

Trixie hadn't actually taken Twilight seriously; she thought that if she were to disagree with the stupid purple unicorn, that she'd have no choice but to do what Trixie wanted. Instead, they were now splitting up, and the thought of being alone down in the dark, desolate cave unnerved Trixie. Not even the warm, relaxing steam off the spring could calm her, but she'd much rather stand there idly than follow Twilight into a death trap.

Twilight shivered hard. As the tunnel's gentle slope rose, the temperature quickly fell. As she continued to walk, the warm humid air from down below quickly turned into cold moisture that stuck to her body. The sounds of striking stone began to ring again, and Twilight quickly found herself back in the first room she and Trixie had first entered. She was in another ditch, and could see three Odium working away at the walls. _They must be those three we just saw earlier. I still don't understand what they were doing by the water, but I suppose that isn't important right now._ As Twilight crept out from beneath a stone bridge up above, she could suddenly see the same giant beast from before. Since she was standing in a fifteen-foot-deep trench, not much of it could be seen from her angle, but what was seen was massive, smooth, and pitch-black, an ever darker black than that of the cave it was residing in. Twilight continued down the pathway, dodging the occasional Odium here and there as she went; she was trying to find a way to get even closer to the monstrosity. _Perhaps it's a good thing Trixie didn't come along. If she hadn't objected when she did, she definitely would've by now._

Twilight continued down the one-way ditch, all the while keeping a watchful eye on the black ball hovering not to far overhead. It barely moved at all, only nudging its body to the left or right; _most likely to get a better look at something going on in the distance_. Unfortunately for Twilight, it appeared there was no way to get closer to her target—she ended up on the other side of the cave after two minutes of walking and scanning the trench she was in for an escape up to the upper level, but instead she ended up in front of another tunnel, just like the one on the opposite wall. Twilight shrugged to herself. _Well, there isn't anywhere else to go_.

Unlike the tunnel to the underwater spring, this tunnel was slanted high upward, and at a much steeper angle, too. There weren't even any steps for Twilight to get a foothold on. _How do the Odiums manage to walk up such a steep incline? This must be at least a sixty-degree angle!_

Almost as if on cue, Twilight heard steps from down below. She turned her head to see an Odium walking up the slant as if it was nothing, but Twilight quickly realized why. There were no sounds of hooves on stone as it walked, but rather a kind of squishing sound; Twilight could easily see the bottom of the creature's feet turn to goop as it pressed down on the rock. _Duh, Twilight—these things are still made out of black slime. But in that case…why do they all look like a bunch of different ponies?_ Every single one had a different silhouette, and there seemed to be absolutely no purpose for doing so. Yet another unanswered question for Twilight; the lack of answers was really beginning to get under her skin.

Twilight stood still to let the Odium pass, and then she returned to her own efforts at getting up the incline. It took a fair amount of effort, but she eventually reached the top of the steep hill; it was only about twenty feet above the floor of the trench. She had entered a small room, small compared to the size of the previous two massive caves; it was domed, like the inside of an igloo, and was about thirty feet from one side to the other. There were four different openings, leading to four other tunnels, and there was a fair amount of traffic going through this specific area. Twilight had just heaved herself up a sixty-degree incline, and trying to mask her heavy panting wasn't exactly easy. In order to put some space between her and the unaware Odiums passing by, Twilight exited the room through the hole that led back into the main cave. Now, she could easily see the massive black sphere of a creature, sitting stoic on its stone pedestal.

Twilight was now on the upper floor of the cave. The cave itself must have been at least eighty feet from ceiling to floor, not including the deep trenches dug out of the ground; she was about level with the base of the giant Odium's wispy tail. There were very few of the smaller black beings on the top floor, and Twilight took advantage of such by allowing herself to breathe a little louder, and walk just a little faster. Curiosity was really getting the better of her, as she was eager to closely examine the wide-eyed ball only fifty feet away from her. Twilight trotted over bridge after bridge, slowing down while crossing each one, until she was finally up close with the enigmatic shadow. She didn't know what to say or do next. _You've gone all this way, Twilight. Now what?_

Thankfully, her question was answered when something near the Odium's tail caught her attention. As Twilight walked up to the floor where the tail met the stone, she found that it didn't actually touch ground—instead, there was a hole, not but four feet wide, that the tail continued down into. Surrounding the hole was a spiral staircase, leading down into the unknown. Twilight was just about to start down the steps until a thought grazed her mind. _Trixie. I can't just leave her back there. But to go back now and bring her all the way back over here would take way too long, and who's to say she'd even come along? I could waste valuable time going back for her! Let's make this quick, Twilight—check down the hole, leave and get Trixie, and then we can get the heck outta here!_ Granted, they had made no progress so far on getting back Paula, finding the Sheriff, or even locating the black box, but Twilight and Trixie did have useful tidbits of information that could prove helpful to the civilians of Appleloosa.

Twilight hurried down the staircase. She wanted to know where the creature's tail ended, that's all she wanted to know. She'd simply find out what it was, and then leave-

When Twilight reached the bottom of the staircase, she promptly stopped in place, and had to plug her mouth with her hooves to cut the loud gasp she let out.

It was a small room, and it differed substantially from the style of the rest of the cave. Rather than the smooth, wet, gray stone of the cave's norm, this room had flat walls and straight edges. This was an actual _room_; the walls were carved out in bas-relief with diverse pictures and ancient writing, and one or two vines had somehow braved the odds and managed to thrive in this pitch-black, cold environment. But it wasn't the room that startled Twilight; it was the little black box, sitting on a cylindrical stone table two yards away, and a hole in the ceiling directly above with a wisp of black smoke descending from it, wriggling down and into the keyhole on the locked box.

Twilight's half-gasp alerted the two Odiums in the room as well. They had been standing off to each side of the table, perfectly still and staring forward, not moving an inch. The smoke had broke off into three separate streams, and while one went into the black box, the other two were going straight into the minds of the two Odiums. It took Twilight only a second to recognize their silhouettes as belonging to PaulaRed and Sheriff Silverstar.

It took only another second for the two possessed ponies to make a move for Twilight, attempting to drive her into the ground.


End file.
